Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Over at the Fire Will Muschamp forum there's a great thread that I agree with 100%.

1:44 left in the 2nd Quarter - Bama 21 UF 141st and 10 at FLA 20Matt
Jones run for 1 yd to the Fla 212nd and 9 at FLA 21Matt
Jones run for 5 yds to the Fla 263rd and 4 at FLA 26Matt
Jones run for 2 yds to the Fla 28End of 2nd Quarter

Our defense has been absolutely shredded to this point and
we are going to waste a possession and an opportunity to add points? I know
Driskel hasn't been lighting it up but this is a game where our defense needs
help, and of course, doesn't get it. I also realize only 1:44 on the clock but
wouldn't that be a perfect time to use our new hurry-up offense? Classic
Muschamp not utilizing all of the tools at our disposal, being conservative and
afraid. Shocker. If you can't take a risk and actually go out and try to win a
game you have no business winning anyway then you're not much a football coach.

5:27 left in the 3rd Quarter - Bama 28 UF 211st and 10 at FLA 35Matt
Jones run for 5 yds to the Fla 402nd and 5 at FLA 40Matt
Jones run for 3 yds to the Fla 433rd and 2 at FLA 43Matt
Jones run for no gain to the Fla 434th and 2 at FLA 43Kyle
Christy punt for 57 yds for a touchback

GAME OVER right there. Alabama just finished off
a 16 play, 7 minute TD drive to go up by 7. We desperately needed at least a
couple of first downs, if not a responding score ourselves and Muschamp goes
full turtle again. Three straight Jones runs and punts. For all of the people
who said getting a new OC won't matter because Muschamp will continue to
dictate the offense, you were 100% right.

Monday, September 15, 2014

If you've stumbled upon this humble blog it's probably because you're somewhat invested in Florida Gator football. As the self-appointed custodian of the original Fire Ron Zook website and archives I haven't had much reason to post in the last few years. But in November of last year I came to the conclusion that Muschamp needed to go the way of Zook.

Saturday's "win" over Kentucky is more evidence on top of the mountain of it that has appeared over the last 3+ seasons. First of all the announcers talked about the much improved Kentucky team. Nobody has any way of knowing how good Kentucky really is as this was the first SEC game they played this year. As a result we don't know how good a win it really was for Florida. But judging from history, Kentucky is no better than a 6 win team. And where does that put Florida, a team that needed a bad call from a ref to win?

The bad call doesn't bother me. It happens. There was a brutal no call on a roughing/targeting play earlier in the game that went against Florida. These things even themselves out. And the game showed that the Gators and Wildcats are, for all intents and purposes, evenly matched.

I haven't put a lot of thought into this post but I thought that it was important to come out of retirement and let readers know that I'm on the Fire Will Muschamp bandwagon. I began the year cautiously optimistic. I was expecting a big improvement on the offensive side of the football and became immediately worried during the opener against Toldedo.

After that game I heard Muschamp talking about how he didn't want to "take 80-90 snaps on defense" and I knew we were in trouble. This is a guy who is game planning his offense to keep the defense off the field instead of to score points.

I posted my doubts on Facebook and was accused of being "hysterical". Not in the "funny" sense of the word but in the "the sky is falling" sense of the word. Unfortunately I was right and now we've lost to an FCS school for the first time in school history. The same people saying I was being hysterical are now rightfully calling for Muschamp's head.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Here's the inevitable "Ron Zook says things were going to be OK despite all evidence to the contrary" story that appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times. Why do reporters continue to waste column inches on this guy? Oh, I forgot, it's because they are lazy douchebags.

“I don’t want to get into why it happened and how it happened and all that stuff,’’ Zook said of the 0-6 slide. “For whatever reason, even when we were 6-0, it didn’t feel right. There were some rumblings going on before the season began. I knew when coach Guenther left there were going to be some issues.’’

MoRon, I guarantee you that if you had gone 3-3 in the back half of the season that you'd still be peddling your bullshit at Illinois. But you're teams always cracked because they had no leadership.

Zook has been fired twice by BCS schools, first Florida, then Illinois. But his reputation as a recruiter should put his name in consideration when jobs open in 2012. And they will. Count on more than a dozen FBS positions changing hands after the upcoming season. The guy living by the lake will be interested.

Whoever takes a chance on Zook is a moRon. His track record has been established. He's a loser.

Saturday, March 31, 2012

I knew it was a matter of time before some enterprising reporter caught up with Ron Zook to see what he what he's up to nowadays. And earlier this month Mike Bianchi was that reporter. Fine. I was amused as I read the article up until I read this:

As the years have passed since he was run out of Florida, I’ve often wondered whether Zook got a fair shake — from fans, from administrators and from those of us in the media. When you see where the program is now after Urban Meyer left it in a mess, the Zook years are starting to look pretty good.

Are you fucking kidding me? Any credibility Bianchi may have had (and it couldn't be much, I haven't read the guy in years) is gone after uttering such a stupidity. How could anyone consider years in which the Gators regularly lost 5 games and the coach and team were belligerent towards the fans. Ron Zook was a walking NCAA violation the fact he never got busted notwithstanding.

Of course Bianchi brings back the old "cupboard was bare" argument about Zook's time at Florida which is absolute horseshit.

Bianchi brings up fireronzook.com and Zook answered this way:

“That’s my legacy to the profession,” he says. “I’m the first guy who had a FireTheCoach.com website. I had no chance. From the day I walked into the introductory press conference, I was fired.”

Wrong dipshit! You got fired because you're a dipshit that doesn't know how to coach. You could still be Florida coach today, all you had to do was WIN and keep the program clean. And what about Illinois? They were ecstatic when you were hired there. But you failed again because that's what you are, a failure. A failure and dipshit. Florida and Illinois made you very wealthy. You were a coach in big time college football. It ain't bean bag. I've never seen a whinier piece of garbage in my life.

Two years after Zook was axed, Meyer won the national title with 21 of 22 Zook recruits starting for the team. Zook still wonders what might have happened if he had been able to survive longer than 2½ years at UF. Would he have won a national title?

Oh please. Ron Zook was a terrible strategist and game day coach. His teams were undisciplined. That 2006 team would have lost 4 games instead of winning a BCS title.

The whole article was vomit inducing. To be a loser is one thing, to carry water for a loser is another. Bianchi, you suck.

So it took the University of Illinois more than twice as long to come to the realization that Ron Zook is not the answer to anything except a trivia question about the first successful fireyourcoach.com web site. Does that make them twice as dumb? No. I've come the realization that it was because the Illini faithful were twice as desperate. But alas facts are facts and a deaf-mute baboon could coach a football team better than the old Zooker.

Here's video of him reading a statement today:

He's gracious now. We'll see how long that lasts. Especially if his successor wins. It didn't last long after he got canned at Florida. I've always believed the best indicator of future performance is past performance. That's why I knew Zook would fail at Illinois and why I think he'll be on the record soon spouting sour grapes despite the fact that he was given every opportunity to succeed and was made quite wealthy in the process.

I think our program is very close, I really do. We just didn't finish a few games here and there.

The old we're getting better routine. But waiting for Zook's teams to finally turn the corner is the same as waiting for Godot.

The article goes on to say:

His arrival in 2005 brought higher expectations but also some skepticism after he was forced out in his third season at Florida. He achieved some terrific recruiting coups, signing Rashard Mendenhall and Vontae Davis.

That's not exactly true. Mendenhall was a Ron Turner commit who didn't de-commit when Zook became the coach.

Well, that's that. This site will stay up. No need to take it down. No doubt that Ron Zook will wind up in the booth somewhere and continue to make obscene amounts of money and spout his incoherent ramblings. ESPN used to be the home of the fraternity of failed former coaches, not so much anymore so we'll see. Either way, there will always be a place that needs to fire Ron Zook.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

A Minnesota victory SHOULD guarantee a Zook canning, so let's go Golden Gophers!

-Anonymous Commenter

Well, his words about the game were prophetic, let's see what happens with Zook's job. In a collapse of Zookese proportions the Illini went 0-6 after starting the season undefeated at 6-0. Though technically bowl eligible it would be crime to all this team to travel anywhere as a "reward" unless there's a new bowl game in Siberia I haven't heard about (possible).

Was reading a recap of the game at the Chicago Tribune and had to laugh out loud:

The loss was especially surprising because the Illini played perhaps their worst game of the season against one of the worst teams in the Big Ten.

Minnesota, which entered the game ranked 110th offensively and 93rd defensively in the nation, stormed to a 27-0 lead as the Illini appeared energy depleted.

Energy depleted? Is that what the fancy journalists call giving up? That's what this was, a team that simply gave up. They gave up on the season, they gave up on themselves, they gave up on their fans and they gave up on moRon Zook.

For old times sake I dropped by the forum that used to be called Illiniboard. I found a thread entitled: New Coaching Comments Thread. Here's some highlights:

Chances were slim to none this coaching staff would be back, and slim just left the building.

/thread

Shortly afterwards this admonition:

Posting rules still apply.

Yes, I know about you and your silly rules, Nazi. Anyone that posts anything negative about Zook gets banned. Well there's too many of them now, they'll have to ban the whole community. Then there was this shining nugget:

Have we seen our final swinging gate?

Zook's special teams really looked ridonkulous with that swinging gate formation. And then there was this gem:

I am an Illini grad living in Florida and I look back to his hiring and all the Florida fans that laughed out loud to me when it happened. They knew he could recruit, but to make the recruits happy, you have to be able to coach and there were many many times in Florida games when he made seemingly bonehead calls where it seemed he was oblivious to the game situation, but we certainly have not seen that at Illinois.....ha

Bingo! No Gator fan cares about Illinois football, but you guys didn't want to listen to reason.

I just hope Zook was smarter with the 1.7 million dollar salary than he was with clock management. If so, he'll be fine. Take a year or two off and coach at a mid-major if still wants to work.

This guy made millions since 2002 at Florida and Illinois. I echo the sentiment, I hope he didn't spend it all on wet suits and ski boats because this clown won't be coaching again. A mid-major would be dumb to hire him.

So we can probably look forward to the firing announcement tomorrow or Monday at the latest.

Getting the old photoshop ready. Good night folks, I may have to start working on firewillmuschamp.com.

I was recently contacted via email by a journalist writing a story about the whole fireyourcoach.com web site phenomenon. He had a couple of questions about this blog, asking if I was the original webmaster of fireronzook.com. I told him the truth which was, no. As I clearly state in the first post of this blog, this is a tribute to the original fireronzook.com site. Anyway I exchanged a couple of emails with the guy and he didn't even mention this blog in his piece. Oh well. I thought there was an interesting angle there but apparently not. Anyway, read the article and enjoy. Fact is that none of these other sites that has popped up has been as a big a success or had such a lasting impact as the original FRZ. Often imitated but never duplicated.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

It's been more than two years since I posted on this blog. The reason for that is simple. Real life intruded. I just didn't have the time to care about Ron Zook and his moronic ways. Remember, I'm not vested in the Illinois program. I'm a Florida Gator and our Zook nightmare ended a while back. I had my reasons for maintaining this blog which I've outlined in previous postings but it was also good fun to poke at the Zooker since he always seemed to jab UF whenever he was given the opportunity.

It's safe to say that the Zook experiment at Illinois is coming to a close and it was a bust. The man simply does not know how to elevate a program. We could dance around the issue but in plain English, he's dumb. Running a modern-day college football program in a major conference is complex stuff and a dummy just isn't going to get the job done. Anyone who has heard Zook speak understands that his intellectual capacity is below average.

This year the fighting Zookers got off to a deceiving 6-0 start. But as with water, Zook's teams always seek their level. After 4 straight losses to legitimate teams, Zook is on the hot seat again and walked out of a press conference when the questions began to come about how long he could last under the current circumstances.

For all you Illini fans, I harbor no ill will toward you. I understand why you pinned your hopes on Zook back in 2005 when he came aboard. You wanted him to be the magic bullet. Recruiting was your answer. And Ron Zook was the "master recruiter". But we Florida fans tried to explain. We tried patiently to educate you on who this man is, having seen him up close as an assistant and a head coach over many years.

You can argue with my methods, my style, whatever. But you can't argue with the substance of my message. Ron Zook is a terrible coach. But as they say with alcoholics, the first step toward recovery is to acknowledge that you have a problem. You can thank me later.